Anime Lectio: TsumaSho

                                                          1. Why do Anime Lectio? 

Anime Lectio is a time for us to stop and take a breath. Between work, activities, family life, and social media, our minds are always moving. We rarely take time to contemplate and ask, why am I watching this anime? What’s the point of all this? And, how is this making me feel? 

2. Put away all distractions 

(phones, work, etc.)

We are so enslaved to things that stimulate our minds. Let this be a moment for us to free our minds, look inside of ourselves, and be at peace.

3. Deep Breathing

Take several deep breaths. Let your mind relax. If you’ve had any questions, desires, or struggles that you’ve been hiding or stuffing away, let them rise up to the surface. 

4. Open yourself to God’s Presence

Remember God places all our thoughts and desires inside of us, and He uses them to draw us closer to Himself. God gives us a community to help us understand who we are and what He is calling us to do. The faces of other people you know and don't know are like signs of God’s presence.  

5. Think About What’s on Your Mind in Relation to the Anime

Think about what’s been on your mind in relation to the anime.  The following is an example of such thoughts written by me. 

I used to teach grieving classes in the high school on the property of our monastery.  One year, I tried doing it from the perspective of thanatology, or the study of death/dying, based on a book written by a thanatologist who visited my community and another year, I tried doing it from a Benedictine perspective based on a book written by one of the monks I live with.  There are many other things you can say about how grief works, like whether it's complicated or uncomplicated, works in stages (the 5 stages of grief came up a lot in what people thought I should've talked about).  However, what's really important is experiencing it in order to learn about it, which is why I don't teach the grieving classes anymore.  An interesting example of experiencing grief can be seen in the series TsumaSho.

6. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog, or seeing the anime for yourself since that's better than any explanation, might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

A man whose wife died as a result of an accident ten years ago and the daughter of this man still struggle to live and move on with their lives without this wife and mother around.  One day, a little girl happens to go over to their house claiming to be this dead wife and mother in terms of having her personality and memories with her husband and daughter, which the man and daughter believe since they also remember these memories and her personality.  However, the personality and memories of this dead wife and mother possessed the body of a little girl who already had her own life with a mother who tries to raise her daughter by herself (at first, it was thought this girl was reborn as the dead wife and mother, but it's later revealed that it was a possession).  Despite the difficulties of this situation, they all manage to spend time together, either the little girl with her mom or the little girl with her husband and daughter in her previous life (usually not both).  The daughter even finds a boyfriend that she eventually marries and the husband almost gets remarried to one of his female coworkers that the little girl meets to show the little girl that he and her daughter can continue living without her, which she also thinks can happen.

7.  Reflect on the anime

Has this brief and written explanation of the anime shed any light on what's been on your minds?  The following is an example of a reflection on the anime from me.

A TsumaSho situation most likely isn't something that would come up in a grieving class unless I had the class watch the anime (I used to teach anime classes too, so I guess combining both is something I could try somehow), but what also makes it an interesting experience of experiencing grief is that this anime is actually about experiencing grief, which is why I use the Japanese title for it. When translated, I think TsumaSho means something like "My Wife is an Elementary Schooler/in Elementary School," which would make it one of those sus anime about someone over eighteen years of age being married to, and/or romantically in love with, someone under eighteen years of age. That's not what's happening here, at least not in the usual bad, creepy, and wrong way that I'm completely not cool with and also think that no one should be cool with (it's also illegal in addition to being bad, creepy, and wrong). It would be more accurate to say "My Dead Wife Possessed the Body of an Elementary Schooler in Order to Help her Husband and Daughter Learn to Live Without Her" or something like that, which is another reason why sticking with just TsumaSho is better. Don't judge an anime based on what it could be based on the title. Watch it for yourself. Especially if it's one like TsumaSho that deals entirely with the grieving process since a series like that is rare (the only other one I can think of that also deals entirely with the grieving process that I've seen is the series Anohana).

8. Final Prayer

Please voice any prayer intentions for friends, family, or people around the world that relate to this anime.  The following is an example written by me.

Let us pray that we can understand others by seeing them for who, or what, they actually are, not based on what they could be, and to realize that the best way to learn about grief is to experience it.